News - The Lion King

08.11.2014 - First Sequence of The Lion Guard

On a Youtube video for the celebration on the
30th anniversary of the Disney Animation TV Series
I spotted a small video clip of the upcoming new Disney series "The Lion Guard".
At 1:05 the unfortunately only 1 second going sequence of Kion jumping. But at the end
(1:17) you also see the new logo:

06.19.2014 - The Lion King Musical soon in Basel

Hessen's Tageblatt reports that BB Promotion and Freddy Burger Management
wants to open in March 2015 a TLK Musical in the Musical Theater Basel.
In addition, TLK now reached a worldwide gross of over 1 billion USD.
Meanwhile Hamburg exceeded the 5000 performances at the 14th of January. With
the opening, Basel hopes to gain similar popularity like Hamburg, where the
musical is an essential part of the tourism economy.

06.15.2014 - Happy 20th anniversary, The Lion King!

Now the movie is fully grown, but most of us are not like the following post
will show. One say that normal people in our age are busy with family or
fighting the daily life problems in big cities or at the countryside, in
contrast we don't. Okay, some do...

Every time at this occasion the same question rises, if we celebrate TLK's
anniversary at the 15th or 24th of June? Personally I take always the day, when
the movie was first published, although it was only a limited audience at a few
cinemas across the US. I could repeat now everything which happened after 1994
and how it constantly changed our lives and the fandom, but this was already
part of the last big 15th anniversary (Still unfortunately in German, sorry).
Instead I could recapitulate the most important events since the last anniversary,
but it is enough to either read again another
post in the Savannah
(and again in German, now I'm feeling really bad about it) or scroll down to recall
the latest events.

Actually, I simply want to congratulate our favorite movie to this amazing
anniversary and I hope it will roar further on and we with it.

06.10.2014 - The Lion Guard

Disney Junior wants to lunch a new series called "The Lion Guard", which is based
on our beloved movie. The series is supposed to be centered around Simba and Nala's
son Kion, who tries to protect the Pride
Lands with a group of other animals.
What happens to Kiara is unknown yet. The idea of the series came from a
meeting with Ms. Kanter and Disney's CEO Robert Iger two years ago of how to
bring TLK to a new generation, also in respect of the upcoming 20th
anniversary.
"It's kind of like The Lion King meets The Avengers" said the Disney Junior
general manager Nancy Kanter. This also stir the hope that Disney will release
new merchandising for The Lion Guard / The Lion King.

Disney Junior wants to air "The Lion Guard" with an hour long movie in November
of 2015 followed by regular episodes the following January 2016 on Disney Junior
Channel and the Disney Channel.

Edit: There are some more news concerning the characters out of
the official Disney press release. Instead of assembling Kion's team out of lions, he challenged
tradition and picking his friends:

Bunga: A fearless honey badger

Fuli: Confident cheetah

Beshte: Happy-go-lucky hippo

Ono: Intellectual egret

Also Mufasa, Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki, Zazu and finally Kiara will also occasionally
appear as Kions older sister in the series. Ford Riley ("Special Agent Oso") will serve
as developer and executive producer. Director will be Howy Parkins ("Jake and the
Never Land Pirates") and composer is Christopher Willis ("Mickey Mouse"). In
addition they also pulling in "wildlife education experts" from Disney’s Animal
Kingdom theme park to consult on the show.

06.05.2014 - New Artwork from The Legacy Collection

After one month we heard the great news about the Legacy Collection, Disney's
blog published new artwork from the artist of the Cover (Lorelay Bove), among
other things the back cover of the Legacy Collection and one more illustration:

And one illustration which will be included with the liner production notes, showing
Simba, Pumbaa and Timon:

05.07.2014 - The Legacy Collection

It has been a while since they were any real news, but now that the 20th anniversary
of The Lion King is approaching there seems to be something new:
Stitchkingdom reports there will also be in a series of "Legacy Collection" a
Lion King version which features the original songs from the motion picture
soundtrack but also 30 minutes of unreleased score plus some notes from the
producer Don Hahn and composer Hans Zimmer.

You can pre-order it here on amazon. A preliminary track list
is also available:

Disc One

'Circle of Life/Nants’ Ingonyama’ Performed by Carmen Twillie, African Vocals Performed by Lebo M

'Didn’t Your Mother Tell You Not to Play With Your Food’ Score

'We Are All Connected’ Score

'Hyenas in the Pride Land’ Score

'I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’ Performed by Jason Weaver with Rowan Atkinson and Laura Williams

'Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ Performed by Joseph Williams and Sally Dworsky with Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella and Kristle Edwards

'Remember Who You Are’ Score

'This Is My Home’ Score

'The Rightful King’ Score

Disc Two

'Circle of Life/Nants’ Ingonyama’ Performed by Carmen Twillie, African Vocals Performed by Lebo M

'The Morning Report’ Performed by James Earl Jones, Jeff Bennett and Evan Saucedo

'Warthog Rhapsody’ Performed by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella

'We Are All Connected 'Score Demo

'I Was Just Trying to Be Brave’ Score Demo

'Stampede’ Score Demo

'Mufasa Dies’ Score Demo

'This Is My Home’ Score Demo

'The Rightful King’ Score Demo

'Circle of Life’ Instrumental Demo

'Circle of Life’ Performed by Elton John

'I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’ Performed by Elton John

'Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ (End Title) Performed by Elton John

Although there will not be the complete score on this collection it is really a great
surprise that they care at all about our wishes and at least I was looking for an
official release of the score for a very long time. Let's hope it will be directly
available. And on top of that we know now what they planed for the anniversary, or is
there still something else to come?

02.28.2013 - The Lion King is highest grossing show on Broadway

First news for this year, although the news are not 'new' anymore, but perhaps
you are interested anyway: The Lion King is named the highest grossing show on
Broadway according to BBC
and since the news is already almost one year old you can assume that it is a
fact now. With more than 850 million USD (at the state of April 2012) it is
well deserved I must say, especially when you consider that not all of the
shows are on stage all the time. For instance the great Broadway performance
period in San Francisco is now over.
In addition a new performance will air in São Paulo, Brazil on March 7th, 2013.

12.20.2012 - Free TV premiere of The Lion King

This Christmas The Lion King will roar for the first time ever in free TV
in different countries. The German TV channel RTL will air the movie at 8:15 pm
on the 23rd of December. Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata are
also shown at 8:15 pm on 27th, respectively 29th of December (2012).
Also in other countries like Brazil the movie aired for the first time.

Update: 4.8 million people were watching, which corresponds to 13.6
percent market share according to quotenmeter.de.
For the smaller TV channel Super RTL, who aired "Simba's Pride" and "The Lion
King 3" with 1.67 million respectively 1.19 million watchers was also a huge
success. (Source: quotenmeter.de)

05.25.2012 - New The Lion King Blu-Ray and DVD box

Amazon
offers in Germany since 8th of Mai 2012 an additional trilogy beside the
wooden box. Obviously as a new edition in a slipcase like for instance from the
release in French:

If this includes a new edition of the movies are unknown for now, until I
receive the box and check it. I will put it here, when I find out.
In addition in 6th of Mai 2012 also the Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3 were
released in the USA as single DBD or Blu-Ray Combo packages. See
here.

As you may have read at amazon, or an other online shop, there is a problem
with the German audio track in the Simba's Pride Blu-Ray Disc. It manifests
in (annoying) high pitch voices, especially in scenes with Vitani and Kiara,
and some music scenes. However, Disney offers to exchange the disc, in case
you are affected by it. Simply write an email to dvd-fragen@disney.de and
receive the instructions for the exchanging process. In my case, it was quite
fast, within 3 days.
Not all discs seems to be affected, but the problem can also be a bad
combination of BD player and BD. A detailed explanation of this problem
is still not known and not mentioned by Disney. At least, with the replacement
Disc, the problems are solved for many people, but not all of them.

11.09.2011 - German Blu-Ray Disc arrived

The German trilogy Blu-Ray disc Box arrived today. It is a nice, but
somehow cheap looking wooden box with an engraving portrait of Simba.
It contains all three movies as Blu-Ray Disks, but not the 3D version.
This is an extra disc. Also I ordered the special collectors DVD edition
with some figure characters. I hope it comes soon. Take a look
here.

Some more information and pictures will follow soon.

11.07.2011 - Review and updates on the cinema and Blu-Ray Disc release

After 8 years The Lion King roars in the cinemas here in Germany again. The
sneak preview was yesterday and the official release will be at 10th of
November. An incomplete list of the release dates is shown below:

25 June 2011: UK (Edinburgh International Film Festival premiere)

28 July 2011: Ukraine

12 August 2011: Mexico

19 August 2011: Paraguay (sneak preview)

25 August 2011: Israel

26 August 2011: Brazil, Poland

27 August 2011: US premiere in California

16 September 2011: USA, Canada, Paraguay

23 September 2011: Iceland

30 September 2011: Turkey

5 October 2011: Netherlands

6 October 2011: Argentina, Greece

7 October 2011: Ireland, Pakistan, UK

8 October 2011: Japan

13 October 2011: Kuwait

14 October 2011: Taiwan

22 October 2011: Hong Kong

25 October 2011: Singapore

6 November 2011: Germany (sneak preview)

10 November 2011: Germany

30 November 2011: Spain

22 December 2011: Portugal

6 January 2012: Sweden

23 March 2012: Russia

The movie started in most of them already and it was supposed to run only for
2 weeks, but due to the big success Disney extended the period, so you can
still be lucky and watch the movie in theatres. On the first weekend in the US The
Lion King performs best at the box office with a gross of 29.3 million USD. That's
a record, only "The Return of the Jedi" was more successful on its re-release.
It even outdo three new releases like Contagion, which only grosses 14
million USD. Again, Disney was surprised by its success, expecting only an
incoming of 12-13 million. Even on the second weekend TLK is still on the top of
the box office slightly eased of down to 22 Million. One reason of its big success
is for sure founded in the next generation, who couldn't see the movie in
cinema. Their parents, who were kids for 17 years, when TLK was released
for the first time and now they show the movie to their kids. In addition, TLK
wasn't challenged by other kids movies at these weekends.

In most countries the cinema release was planed as advertisement for the
Blu-Ray release, mostly two weeks in advanced. So, after two weeks after
the cinema release the Blu-Ray should be available. In some countries like Spain
or Germany it is on the same day. In Germany it will be the 10th of November.

The overall experience of the cinema and the Blu-Ray version is
terrific, considering we are dealing with a movie that is 17 years old and
the 3D effect was added afterwards. Let's first start with the cinema
3D version.
At the moment there is no way to get closer to the Pride Lands than with
the 3D version of TLK. You will be thrilled when you see see Zazu flying
over the far landscape of Africa, the heads of all the different animals
and to Mufasa on top of Pride Rock, or when Simba is struggling
through the thorn bushes or the jungle. The arrangement of the z position of the
different plants, rocks and characters are very lovely. Some of them look
so real, you want to touch them.
The overall impression is heard-warming and I wouldn't believe it, when
someone told me for one year that the movie will look like this in 3D.
Still, there are some issues that cannot be unmentioned here, although
some of them are not surprising: For instance when the Zebras are
dashing through the water in the Circle of life scene, the water is only
visible in one layer. It's not surprising when you think how difficult
it is to even make 2 dimensional drawing of that scene. Also there are some
scenes where the focus point are not realistic, which feels strange
to the audience e.g. when Nala is lurking in the grass to pounce on
Pumbaa, the grass way before and behind is totally focused. But these are
only minor things. One that spoils the movie, at least a little, is that
the retreating clouds in the Mufasas ghost scene are missing when Simba
is chasing after him. Also there are some color changes and issues like different
tones of the night sky, or Simbas whiskers are orange, when Timon and Pumbaa
tried to wake him up, after they found him lying in the desert. The
crocodiles in the "I just can't wait to be King" scene are also
reworked like in the DVD and IMAX edition. However, the "Morning Report"
scene is not in the theaters version.
The sound is completely new arranged and mixed as well. The songs are
more clear and brilliant now, but the special effects are too decent
, or in other words: the sounds are dull. This is especially noticeable
during the "Stampede" scene or other action scenes with a high proportion
of bass. However, in case the volume is turned to high enough values you
won't loose much of
the TLK feeling like in the DVD 5.1 sound mix edition, where the main goal
was to create a sound mix that really includes the audience into the
movie.

Blu-Ray Disc

The Blu-Ray discs basically have the same version of the movie as the
cinema release
and therefore containing the same glitches and mistakes. Except for
one glitch we discover so far. The shadows of the hyenas are not there
in the 3D cinema version and 3D BD while Scar is speaking to the
lionesses after Mufasas death:

But the sound mix
seems to be the same, so I won't repeat it here. It's still amazing to
see the characters, the background... better: the whole movie in such
focused high resolution frames.
The bonus material on the Blu-Ray discs is the same than announced on
the previous news. The new documentary about the movie is informative, but
also uses a lot of already known sequences from previous bonus features
on the Laserdisc and the DVD. However, there are a quite new things I
briefly want to mention here:

Pride of The Lion King
This 40 minutes long documentary video is constructed as a reunion meeting, where some
of the artists, the producer and directors meets again to talk about
the different stages during the production of TLK. They talking about
all the fun they have and the things went wrong. Also they reveal
new facts that wasn't heard on the different bonus material before.
For instance that Rafiki was supposed to be a cheetah and Scar was a
leader of an enemy group of baboons fighting against Mufasas pride.
But not all parts are about the movie, they also have a lot of clips
about the musical production and interviews with Julie Taymor.

The Lion King: A Memoir
In contrast to Pride of The Lion King, A Memoir consist of small
interviews with Don Hahn and some clips in between from the
DVD and LD bonus feature. Also he talks about the production
and the heavy earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994 which forces the
team to shift their working place. This is especially hard during
the main production stage.

Deleted scenes
As mentioned in the previous news there are 4 never seen before
deleted scenes, which I want to shortly summarize here: Zazu flatters: As the title already suggested, Zazu tries
to flatter Mufasa after he confronted Scar. It's obvious why this
one was canceled, because the joke was to bad. Mufasa's song or "King of the Wild" Yes, this is a song
written for Mufasa to explain Simba the circle of life. It's okay,
but it's good that it didn't appear in the final movie, because
Mufasa is so mighty, powerful and respected that he simply didn't
need a song to get the message to the audience. ;) Scar wants Nala as his Queen: In this scene Scar tries to
convince Nala to be his made, therefore Nala leaves the Pride
Lands. This is basically the same scene than in the Broadway musical,
so no musical idea at all! Simba and Nala reunited: Nala's exile is picked up again and
continued, because now she has another reason beyond finding help
in the jungle. Also Timon is there more jealous about losing Simba
to this lioness.Zazu flatters Scar: Zazu now has really to compare in words
Mufasa and Scar. He tries hard not to lie about Scars regency and somehow
he seems to like it.

Interactive Blu-Ray gallery
Based on the Java language in the Blu-Ray system, they designed a gallery with:

165 pictures about the different characters as high resolution images.
They look great and I didn't see all of them.

115 about Visual design: Great pictures from the early background drawings
with the awesome African nature. They would make great desktop
pictures.

84 storyboard pictures.

50 layout and background pictures mostly from the LD.

Bloopers and Outtakes
Some artist came together again to draw the scenes of the synchronisation
Outtakes and Bloopers from the original recordings. It staring Mufasa,
Simba, Timon, Pumbaa, Scar and Nala. In my opinion it's funny and worth
watching it. For the German release they also translated everything, but
not with all of the original cast, which is rather unfortunate. They
would have better do a German synchronisation of the documentary
"Pride of The Lion King" and "Don Hahn: A Memoir".
In case you want to watch it without using the BD, then take a look on
youtube. It should be probably easy to find there.

In addition there are an introduction video to 3D featuring Timon and Pumbaa, which
reminds me strongly to these "Safety Smart" series. An advanced feature using your
computer, or some Apple product like iBook or iPad called Disney's Second Screen is also
available. While watching the movie on your Blu-Ray player you can see production notes,
fan facts, concept arts, or playing little puzzle games on your computer in sync with
the movie. There are some nice hints in there about a character called Mee-Too and
Bhati. A lion cub and a fennec, the playmates of Simba.
Although the discs didn't contain all the bonus material from the Platinum release -
what is really a shame when you think of the space left on the disc - but it's still
accessible through a feature called "Disney's Vault". To use it, you need a Blu-Ray
disc player with a internet connection, because the content is download to your
player.
The menu of the BD is beautiful and not such a ugly animation of Zazu like the last one.
Instead it contains different scenes of the movie projected at a key point. For example
there is a nice background image of Pride Rock and a few clips are projected on
it. Then it goes to the elephant graveyard and so on. The menu itself is well
structured and you easily find what you want.

A compiled table, which is still work in progress, with the comparison of the different
medias and bonus features are available
here.

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata
In the trilogy set there is also a Blu-Ray disc version of Simba's Pride and The
Lion King 3. Starting with Simba's Pride the image quality is good considering
the low-budget production. They cleaned up the characters and the backgrounds,
although you can see that the backgrounds are not in such a good shape than on
TLK Blu-Ray disc. But it looks much better compared to the DVD version. The sound
is good as well, not remixed for 7.1 though, but with 5.1 DTS-HD, which is rather
unfortunate, but not surprising. The BD disc contains the same glitches than the DVD
version, e.g the "flying" paw of Kiara during her attempt to rescue Zira, or the
switching scar from the right to the left ear of Zira. And here again I
was amazed by the quality. I've expected much worse. The start menu greets the
audience with a few screenshots, concept arts and the "We are one" score as
background music. The bonus features are unfortunately the same as in the DVD
version, except of a new documentation about insects with Timon and Pumbaa.
The Lion King 3 is very similar to Simba's Pride. They didn't spend too much
time for cleaning up the scenes, but because the movie is much younger the quality
is better than in Simba's Pride. The backgrounds are really nice and can compete
against The Lion King ones. But the bonus features are again the same
as in the DVD version. The menu of the disc contains short clips from the
different stages of the movie.

Best of The Lion King

There are also news on the Soundtrack. There is a new compact disc called "Best of
The Lion King", which is a collection of songs from all three movies. See
below for a track list:

01 Circle Of Life

02 Grazing in the Grass

03 Can You Feel the Love Tonight

04 Warthog Rhapsody

05 Kube

06 This Land

07 Digga Tunnah Dance

08 The Morning Report

09 Love Will Find a Way (End Title)

10 The Lion Sleeps Tonight

11 Be Prepared

12 They Live in You

Also there is a German version called "Best of König der Löwen" available, which
contains for the first time ever the German songs in Simba's Pride. Unfortunately
not all of them are included, though. "Er lebt in dir" and "Ziras Wiegenlied" is
not inside, but better than nothing.

For the cinema release Disney has released lots of new merchandising like plush toys,
clothes, mugs and other goodies. Take a look here.

Further updates are coming soon...

05.26.2011 - Confirmation and release dates

This is an overview of the different release dates and features of the Blu-Ray Disc and
the cinema release of The Lion King. In the United state the dates are the following:

On September 16, 2011 The Lion King will for the first time ever
appear in 3D in theater

On October 4, 2011 the BD in high definition and 3D will be released as well as an
8-disc special collectors edition

The dates for Germany, Switzerland and Austria:

On November, 10 2011 The Lion King will for the first time ever
appear in 3D in theater

And as well on November, 10 2011 the BD in high definition and the Triology containing The
Lion King, Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1 1/2 will be released

Concerning the Bonus material and different boxes the following information seems to be
confirmed:
For the 8 Disc edition:

Disc 1: The Lion King Blu-ray 3D Feature Film

Disc 2: The Lion King Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus

Disc 3: The Lion King 1-1/2 Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus

Disc 4: The Lion King 2 Blu-ray Feature Film + Bonus

Disc 5: The Lion King DVD Feature Film + Bonus

Disc 6: The Lion King 1 A533; DVD Feature Film + Bonus

Disc 7: The Lion King 2 DVD Feature Film + Bonus

Disc 8: The Lion King Digital Copy Feature Film

The Bonus material for The Lion King:

Never Before Seen Bloopers

4 Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes

Deleted Song

The Morning Report: Extended Scene

Disney Second Screen

Pride of The Lion King

The Lion King: A Memoir-Don Hahn

Disney Sing Along Mode

Interactive Blu-ray Galleries

Audio Commentary

Disney's Virtual Vault: Classic DVD Features Powered By BD-Live!

And for The Lion King 1 1/2:

Timon and Pumbaa's Vacation Safari

Deleted Scenes

Timon: Behind the Legend

Before the Beginning: The Making of The Lion King 1 1/2

Music Video

Timon and Pumbaa's Insectapedia

"One by One" Animated Show

Proud of Simba's Pride

Timon and Pumbaa: Find Out Why

Music Video

So far it seems to be the same, that were before on the LD, or the DVD, but perhaps there will be some
new bonus material. The Memoir from Don Hahn and a few other seems promising. Don't forget to preorder
it on amazon, or whereever you like, before it's to late. ;)

Now a small overview over the different announced boxes: The Lion King 4-disc 3D Combo Pack, containing the
TLK BD, a 3D BD, the DVD and a digital copy. Also there will be a 2-disc BD and DVD Combo Pack
available and finally the one disc DVD set. And of course the 8-disc collector edition already discussed
above.
Now some technical specs: The Lion king will appear on BD with a resolution of 1080p and aspect
ratio of 1.78:1. Simba's Pride and TLK 1 1/2 will have an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Concerning the
sound, TLK will be for the first time ever available with 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio in English and
for the french and spanish tracks in 5.1 Disney's Enhanced Home Theater Mix (DEHT).

05.11.2011 - Blu-Ray Disc extras and poster

Stitchkingdom has revealed some yet unconfirmed extras of the Blu-ray Disc. Among them
is a technique called "Second Screen", which allows you to watch the movie in
synchronisation with the bonus features. In addition to that, the following bonus
material may appear on the BD:

Pride of the Lion King

The Lion King: A Memoir ? Don Hahn

Bloopers and Outtakes

Deleted and Alternate Scenes and Song

The Morning Report (Extended Scene)

Disney Sing Along Mode

Interactive Blu-ray Gallery

Disney’s Virtual Vault — DVD Legacy Bonus

It's not very obvious what all this material will contain, but for instance the Memoir
could be very similiar to "The Making of The Lion King" with Robert Guillaume. I'm
especially interesting in the bloopers and outtakes. This may something what was never
seen before.

Perhaps I also have found the future poster for the release. It looks better in large
resolution, but still a little work on it wouldn't harm anyone. The new title style
is what bothers me most.

04.28.2011 - The Lion King DVD re-release

The DVD of The Lion King will be re-released with a new cover as well. It's
looking better, but still far from perfect. In general, I don't like these
modern, quickly CGI rendered looking covers.
See for yourself:

04.24.2011 - The Lion King Triology Eight-Disc Box set

On Amazon.com
is the Lion King Eight-Disc Combo Box set available for preorder. It contains
the Lion King Diomand Edition and a 3D version on each BD. Surprisingly Simba's Pride and
The Lion King: Hakuna Matata will be on board as well. Further there will be
a version on DVD for each movie and a digital copy. This is quite a huge
box set and the price is just as well. 100 USD, if you preorder the box it is
'only' 74.99 USD.
The box itself seems to be very nice, but the DVDs and Blu-Rays still have their
questionable cover art. Perhaps this won't be the final layout, so hope for the
best.

03.31.2011 - Update on the Blu-Ray front

Well, this is a little update about what's going on at the moment: First, there
are a few more dates, you will be happy about to hear. The Lion King will be
back at the cinema in the United States in October 2011. In Germany the release is
planed for November 2011.
Further Lori MacPherson, Executive Vice President and General Manager of
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, announced at a press conference a
3D version of The Lion King for the Blu-Ray release. The date for this
release is now officially confirmed on a flyer in the "Tangled" DVD at least
for Fall 2011. He also mentioned Timon and Pumbaa will give a small
introduction to the world of 3D in Disney movies to children.

And finally, as you can see below, they have improved the cover art for the Blu-Ray
release and fixed some issues. It's about time! But still this modern design leaks
of the magic and powerful outline from the old layout. In my humble opinion a timeless
movie deserves an even timeless design and not some modern hyped 3D looking.

01.20.2011 - Amazon.com lists the Lion King Blu-ray

Amazon.com already lists the Lion King Blu-ray with a new cover. But it seems to be
without 3D. Further you can set up an 'alert', when the disc becomes available and then get notified. I
found the cover in bigger resolution. Judge for yourself:

Update: It appears to be a fan cover as you can read in the subtitle. But the interesseting thing is,
that the assumed original cover is listed there, too. Maybe Amazon didn't updated the article, yet. Nevertheless
the rumor mill keeps going.

01.03.2011 - New Cover for the Blu-Ray release

Happy New Year!Stitchkingdom revealed some information about the Blu-Ray and a front cover from the future Lion King release in fall 2011:

Honestly, it looks very creepy, to say the least. I really hope the final release won't look like that. Further they say in the announcement, there will be some new Menus, of course and new animtion with Timon and Pumbaa, but hopefully they don't look like the guys on the cover.
I'm still wondering why they are planing to bring a direct 3D BD release and don't mention any IMAX 3D. But there is definetly something going on there. :)

11.14.2010 - TLK Trailer on "Beauty and the beast" Blu-Ray

The trailer from the last news is indeed on the "Beauty and the beast" Blu-Ray, but in much better quality than the youtube version. In other words 1080p with four different audio tracks. So far it's looking very good. A small appetizer is below:

Unfortunately the trailer doesn't came up when starting the blu-ray, but it's located under "Bonus Feature" with some other clips. Have fun. :)

07.30.2010 - First Lion King Trailer for Diamond Edition?

Youtube has a video, which seems to be the first Trailer of the Diamond Blu-Ray Edition. It claims that it will be released, as expected, in fall 2011. But the quality in 1080p seems to be quite bad and it looks more like an upscaling. I guess the 'real' trailer will be first to be seen on the "Beauty and the Beast" Blu-Ray. Then we will know for sure. ;)

06.23.2010 - 3D Version of The Lion King

Empire Online reports that Don Hahn, the producer of the Lion King, has provided some information of a 3D version of the movie. But read for yourself:

[...] First, Hahn revealed that Beauty And The Beast isn’t the only Disney classic about to go 3D. A certain cartoon starring a warthog and a meerkat will be returning to cinemas too. “I’m actually trying to work out a 3D conversion of The Lion King. I’ll be doing that when I go back to the States in a couple of weeks,” he said, explaining that we shouldn’t expect to see it for a while yet, since the Disney boffins are taking their time in making Simba, Zazu et al pop out of the screen. “It’s going to be spectacular – we will do a good job for ya! The technology is tremendous. We did A Nightmare Before Christmas a few years ago and Tim thought it was better than the original because it allows you to walk onto the set.” [...]

I think this sounds promising, although I have mixed feelings about seeing Simba, Zazu, Rafiki and Co in 3D. At least, they are developing a new technology to convert the images and with it a hope that it might be looking good and will not ruin the best movie in the world. But we will see.
Further he says that they are still in the beginning of the process, so it will eventually comes for the 20th birthday of TLK? Unfortunately I have no more information and it was just a wild guess.

03.27.2010 - Further rumors on the Blu-Ray Release

First a very belated Happy New Year. :)

Some news on the Blu-Ray release of The Lion King. Actually this time from two different sites now. First from Ultimatedisney:

[...] Beyond that, a big October 2011 splash is expected for one of Disney's biggest all-time titles; The Lion King is set to bow on Blu-ray then. As always, all of these plans are subject to change until they're formally announced (and sometimes even after that). But we had to pass this news along to give you an idea of how long you'll be waiting for these highly-anticipated high-def debuts and standard-def returns.

And thedigitalbits:

[...] He also posts word there that Disney currently has The Lion King set for BD release in October of 2011. Bang-up job, Jeremy!

06.15.2009 - 15th anniversary of The Lion King

Unbelievable, but true: The Lion King has its world premiere right today for 15. years in the Radio City Music Hall. I've thought about a lot of things to celebrate this event, but I can't come up with something that fit this historical day properly. So I decide to write down the story about the Lion King in order to set focus on the movie itself. I think it's useless to say, that this is a lifetime job, but I want to highlight some important facts considered with TLK.

Unfortunately I write down this story in German. If you are capable to read german, or babelfish or something like that isn't stupid enough for you, you can read it here: 15. TLK Jubiläum
I try to translate it as fast as possible, but I have a lot of other work to do right now. -.-

Anyway, Happy Birthday my beloved "The Lion King". :-)

03.10.2009 - Blu-ray and DVD re-release notifier

Well, some time has paste again, but I dig out something new on the web, what might interest you: A notifier for future TLK releases. For some time it wasn't there and it is a nice and interesting step, although I believe the rumor mill will reveal the date much earlier before Disney announce it. But you'll never know.
Nevertheless, this site wasn't there for some time ago, like I said and probably it's a general notification system for all Disney movies, but it could be usefull, when you're not surfing the web for news all the day. ;)

12.31.2008 - Happy New Year and maybe a release date for The Lion King

And now another year is nearly gone, so I wish you a happy new year and that the future year have some more news on TLK. :)
Apropos News: For some time I digged out this:

It is from a brazil website, that talk about a conference of Disney, which also took place in Brazil. I don't report this earlier, because I don't know what's true about it. I even don't know, yet. So be careful with such news, but perhaps it's possible to help predicting a release date.
And there is another point, I become aware of. The next year will be the 15th anniversary of The Lion King. I don't know how to appreciate this special event, but I hope I will came up with something.

01.17.2007 - The Lion King on Blu-Ray Disk!?

There is a trailer on the new new "Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man's Chest" DVD, where is a list of upcomming releases
of Disney movies, who will be released on Blu-Ray Disk.
In case you have the question: what is a Blu-Ray Disk than
take a look on the following links:
Blu-Ray High-definition video
I'm looking forward to this release, because I'm interesseting
to know in wich way the new standard improves the movie and
maybe the audio quality. Furthermore, of course, I hope that
Disney takes their time to port the Movie so that we can enjoy
TLK on a larger TV, perhaps to get as well the feeling back
when we were in theatre or the IMAX, if you have the necessary
hardware equipment.
Source:A List of Blu-Ray Releases
lionking.org

01.01.2007 - Happy New Year

I wish you a happy new year and that all your hopes and
dreams come true. ;)
Maybe I this year I have enough time to complete or set some more stuff online, anyway.

04.01.2006 - There will be a fourth The Lion King Movie

Due to Information from Soti and Andreas Deja (the animator of Scar),
there will be a fourth The Lion King Movie. The story take place before
Simba to the time where Ahadi was King. We'll see when Mufasa and
Scar were young and who Nala's Father really is.
Also Disney will use approved method and artists like Hans Zimmer, Lebo M
and the old producer Jay Rifkin. Furthermore there will be 5 new songs,
where the title of two of them are known, yet: "Follow your path" (by Ahadi) and
"The Lion in the moon" (by Uru).
For more information please visit the thread on the Savannah, but it's in german.

03.31.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Voice Actors Listed

The Lion King characters are voiced as follows:
Cheech Marin as Banzai
Jim Cummings as Scar (possibly Ed too)
Cam Clarke as Simba
James Earl Jones as Mufasa
Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Young Simba
Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa

So they couldn't get Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick,
Jeremy Irons, or Whoopi Goldberg, and I'm unsure how
Jonathan Taylor Thomas fits into the picture (surely he's too
old to voice Simba convincingly anymore-after all, they got
someone else for the "Morning Report" song). But they did
get James Earl Jones, apparently...
I'm still wondering about, in what way Jonathan Tayler Thomas
will povide his voice for young Simba? Or do they use old material?
That's really confusing....
Source:
lionking.org

03.29.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Released in US

03.25.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Website Updated

The official U.S. website for Kingdom Hearts II has been
updated with detailed information on the Lion King world
and a lot of screenshots (though the dialogue subtitles
are still in Japanese).
There is also detailed voice cast information on the main news
page, in anticipation of the March 28 ship date.
Thanks to Ryan R.
Source:
lionking.org

03.03.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II Voice Actors Confirmed

KHInsider.com has an official list of the voice
actors who will appear in this game; there are lots of big names from
original Disney movies, including James Woods as Hades and
Bruce Boxleitner as Tron, and appearances by Dan Castellaneta,
Christopher Lee, Sean Astin, and others as well, reprising familiar
roles or taking over for others.
Unfortunately, however, it appears that no original Lion King voice
actors are present; but then, nobody else is confirmed for known
Lion King roles, so keep an eye on this site for further updates.
Via Bernardo C.
Source:
lionking.org

02.11.2006 - Kingdom Hearts II U.S. Release Date Confirmed

The official press release from Square-Enix
confirms that Kingdom Hearts II will be released in the U.S. on March 28,
2006. (Via Ryan R.)
In it, there's information about an "all-star" voice cast, which suggests
that the original voice actors might be featured in the game. As
Bernardo C. notes, the IMDB page for the game lists Jeremy Irons
as the voice of Scar.
Source:
lionking.org

12.28.2005 - Kingdom Hearts II Scar/Simba Footage Posted

If you just can't wait to see how the Pride Lands sequence ends in
the upcoming Kingdom Hearts II game, a lengthy video has been
posted here showing the
climactic battle with Scar (featuring a few additional characters).
Scar seems to be considerably harder to defeat than he was in the
movie. (He also seems to have only one facial expression...)
Source:
lionking.org

12.20.2005 - Kingdom Hearts II U.S. Website Online

Ryan R. notes that the U.S. website for Disney/Square Enix's
Kingdom Hearts II has gone live. The game, featuring many
licensed Disney characters and settings, will reportedly contain
a full Lion King world; although the site currently doesn't have
information about that world, it's expected that it will be added
as more content is developed for the site.
The release date for the game is given by the site as "Spring 2006".
The Japanese version (which requires a Japanese PS2) will be
released December 22. The English version is widely expected to
feature voice work by the included movies' original actors, in keeping
with the previous game.
Earlier Kingdom Hearts II news and press materials here.
UPDATE: The exact release dates, according to GameSpot, are:
North America: March 1, 2006
Japan: December 22, 2005
Europe: Spring 2006
Source:
lionking.org

12.13.2005 - From the Lion's Mouth

11.14.2005 - TLK Expanded Score Unearthed

It's been circulating from hand to hand for a while now,
but now it's been posted on an official page at
Hans-Zimmer.com that a
long-lost "Lion King Expanded Score" has appeared on
several download sites and is achieving broad acknowledgment
among fans of Zimmer's music and TLK alike.

This score contains 21 tracks, 16 of which consist of
never-before-released instrumental music from Hans Zimmer's original
masterpiece score. The linked site contains track information and a
message discussion board, where more information can be obtained
on how to find a copy of the score.
Source:
lionking.org

08.24.2005 - Lion King Level in Kingdom Hearts II

Ryan R. e-mails with this bit of info:
I think it should be mentioned that the sequel to Kingdom
Hearts(which features Simba as a summon) will have a
actual Lion King world. The creator of Kingdom Hearts II,
Tetsuya Nomura, has told people in numerous interviews of
The Lion King being featured as a stage in Kingdom Hearts
II, whereas in Kingdom Hearts 1, the idea for Lion King to be
a stage was denied. Hopefully this can get Lion King fans to
check it out in the game which will be released this Winter.
Sounds like something to look forward to. Ryan mails in a
follow-up (09.30.05) that it has yet to be officially confirmed
by Square-Enix that the TLK world will be in the game, but
it remains a strong possibility.
Confirmation of this development is reported; thanks
to Zala, Ryan, and Seryi for forwarding the news!
High-res scans of the Japanese press material are available
at RPGamer.com. An even better site, full of well-processed
scans and screenshots, is at
Kingdom Hearts Ultimania.Source:
lionking.org

02.14.2005 - DVD Exclusive Awards for TLK 1 ½

Simba B. alerts me to this information posted at UltimateDisney.com by Luke:

The Lion King 1 ½ took home five trophies at last night's DVD Exclusive Awards in Los Angeles. The direct-to-video "in-between-quel" earned the award for Best Animated DVD Movie Premiere, as well as Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing honors for a DVD premiere. One of the film's lead personalities, sarcastic meerkat Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane, animated by Alexis Stadermann), was commended as Best Animated Character Performance.
Source:
lionking.org

2/14/2005 - DVD Exclusive Awards for TLK 1 ½

Simba B. alerts me to this information posted at UltimateDisney.com by Luke:

The Lion King 1 ½ took home five trophies at last night's DVD Exclusive Awards in Los Angeles. The direct-to-video "in-between-quel" earned the award for Best Animated DVD Movie Premiere, as well as Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing honors for a DVD premiere. One of the film's lead personalities, sarcastic meerkat Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane, animated by Alexis Stadermann), was commended as Best Animated Character Performance.
Source:
lionking.org

01.09.2005 TLK Going Back In the Vault

According to Amazon.com
, all three Lion King movies are set to be discontinued
n January 31, 2005. Get yours now while supplies last!
Thanks to Jess Walzak!
Source:
lionking.org

10.14.2004 Vinyl Special Edition Soundtrack

For those fans who still have the means and the desire to play
vinyl records, Disney has now apparently released a
Vinyl Record Version of the Lion King
Special Edition Soundtrack. It's got a unique art overlay (which, I presume,
doesn't interfere with the playback), and looks really hot. Might be worth
collecting even if you don't have a vinyl record player! Price is
$17.99.
Thanks to Roku!
Source:
lionking.org

09.21.2004 TLK Trilogy Boxed Set Art

Looks like it's little more than a bunch of pre-existing
clip-art composited together. Too bad they couldn't have commissioned
some new original art... but I suppose it could have been worse.
Thanks to Lindsay M. for spotting this!
Source:
lionking.org

09.07.2004 6-Disc Lion King Trilogy DVD Set Available for Preorder

Set for release on December 7, 2004, there's a new six-disc
"Lion King Trilogy" set that you can preorder from Amazon.com
or Circuit City . List price is $69.99, but the retail chains
have lower prices than that.
Thanks to Lion Queen for the info!
Scroll down to the 05.05.2004 entry to see the box art
for this set; also note that it's been out in Region 2 areas
(such as the UK) since June 28. Thanks to Mark H. for pointing
this out!
Best Buy has it too (thanks Bryan B.).Source:
lionking.org

09.02.2004 "Simba's Pride" Special Edition DVD and Soundtrack Released

The Special Edition re-release of Simba's Pride is now
available everywhere, including Wal-Mart and DisneyDVD.com.
Laura (aka "coolraptor") has submitted this review:
First off, the bonus lithograph pictured on the Disney Store
website is the same one that came with the DVD. It comes in a
large envelope almost as nice (maybe nicer than) the litho
itself. I own the original DVD release of SP but this one
actually looks clearer onscreen. I don't know if it's possible
that the quality could be better than the original DVD release
but I swear it looks better¿for example, during the opening as
the sun is rising I see details on the elephants I don't remember
seeing before, such as the actual folds of skin whereas in the
original DVD all I saw were silhouettes. The colors in general
appear a little less intense than the original DVD release in
general the film is "not so orange".
I did see the aforementioned change in Kovu's facial expression
during the one instant in the Crocodile Attack screen. Why that
was done beats me...he gasps straight at the camera for a split
second before turning his head to the left at which point the
animation looks identical to the original release. Also I noticed
how the screen fades a little faster right after the Upendi sequence
so we don't see Kiara and Kovu going from walking to the beat of
the song to a regular walk. I had to skim through most of the
movie (a bit busy today :) so if there are any other miniscule
changes I did not see them¿it'll have to wait either until tomorrow
when I get to actually watch the film and maybe for sharper eyes
than mine.
Chapters are all the same except that the chapter entitled
"Alligator Attack" is now called "Crocodile Attack". Menu pages are
nice, not nearly as fun as TLK 1.5 but also no horrific 3D animation
to deal with as per TLK:SE. The "Matter-Of-Facts" option is a bit
annoying turned on¿it supposed to be a pop up of interesting facts
you can choose to have on while watching the film. A great idea,
except for the fact the pop ups block virtually the entire screen!
"One by One" short is an uplifting sequence, using a longer, modified
version of the song One by One, about kids escaping their rather
depressing town to go to the surrounding veldt to fly kites. "Find out
why" shorts are fun but there's only five of them¿I recall quite a few
more shorts existed during the One Saturday Morning run. The Timon and
Pumbaa's virtual tour is possibly the least interesting of the three
virtual tours and here we finally get subjected to some bad 3D
animation, including the duo's new pet elephant Gertie (and yes,
eventually she starts talking). Rafiki's challenge is a gourd shuffling
game that plays for about five rounds. Pride Land Games consist of
three games (two mathematical, one a shape game) that are extremely
basic. Of all the bonus features, in fact, the Proud of Simba's Pride
is by FAR the most interesting. We get to see some of the storyboards,
character model sheets, and hear a few lines that never made the film,
including one by Mufasa (or more accurately perhaps Mufasa's ghost) where
he blames Simba for the war between the Pridelanders and Outlanders.
Also, it made me respect what is still my least favorite of the TLK
trilogy a little bit more when I learned how some of the things we see
in the film were done intentionally to invoke a deeper meaning. For
example, the animators explain how during the original we always see Pride
Rock from the right but in the sequel it is nearly always shown from the
left to cue in viewers that this is a different story to be viewed from a
different perspective. They also try to explain some of Simba's behavior
during the sequel that I had previously considered irrational. As I
said, in all it made me respect TLK 2 just a bit more.
So in conclusion: the film looks a bit better and cleaner to me and the
bonus features, with the exception of the Proud of Simba's Pride featurette,
are disappointing. Which leads me to the question: Where are the deleted
scenes? I could've sworn I had read somewhere that some of the pencil
tests that have been floating around online for years (i.e., Vitani and
Nuka's introductions, Zira's suicide) would be included here. I even
played the games and did the safari in the hopes that maybe we would get
them as rewards at the end. But there is no sign of these at all. So if
someone else figures out that they are on theÂ disc and how to get them,
let the rest of us know, OK?
The soundtrack has also been re-released, according to DisneyStore.com; it
doesn't contain all the songs from "Return to Pride Rock", the original
edition of the soundtrack; the original (non-TLK-related) Lebo M. songs
have been omitted.
Source:
lionking.org